CHRISTOPHER HICKS of Sawyerville cast some light on the process recently when he called out the House Republican Organization for trying to get him to leave the primary race for 95th House District state representative.

Now he's adding some verbal heat.

I recently wrote that Hicks rejected a nudge to leave the race from JOE WOODWARD, political director of organization, who said Rep. AVERY BOURNE, R-Raymond, was the unanimous choice for the seat when she was appointed early this year. She replaced former state Rep. WAYNE ROSENTHAL, R-Morrisonville, who resigned to become head of the Department of Natural Resources.

TERRI KOYNE, who chairs the Macoupin County GOP, contacted me later to say that Bourne was not the unanimous choice of the county party chairmen, and Woodward knows it.

"For the record, I did not vote for Avery Bourne to fill the vacancy," Koyne said, adding that Woodward shouldn't speak for the county chairmen. Hicks had said Woodward told him all county chairmen would support Bourne in 2016.

Other Republican chairmen with territory in the 95th backed up Koyne's story about the split vote in for the appointment. Koyne adds that she supports the choice the majority made and "will do whatever I can to help and support (Bourne) in her job."

I heard from both sides that a telephone conversation between Hicks and Christian County GOP Chairman SETH McMILLAN didn't go well when McMillan said his central committee is backing Bourne in the March primary. McMillan said Hicks was "confrontational," which Hicks denies, saying it was McMillan who raised his voice.

"Maybe we both raised our voices," McMillan said, adding that he hung up on Hicks.

But in an email to me about the situation, Hicks also wrote this: "Joe Woodward and the HRO are trying to run the Republican Party like a Nazi cult. If Avery Bourne does not disassociate herself from the HRO and Joe Woodward this election, she might as well start wearing the HRO swastika on her sleeve."

As for the selection, Woodward thanked Koyne for her leadership on the selection committee. He said the selection process was collaborative, driven by the county chairmen, and "Avery earned the appointment, and the county chairs left that meeting united."

Bourne said Wednesday that she has always expected a 2016 primary and "never expected this to be a pretty race."

"I'm not taking anyone for granted," she added. "I'm just working hard."

Also in the Republican contest is DENNIS SCOBBIE of Litchfield. Democrats in the running in their primary are Macoupin County Circuit Clerk MIKE MATHIS and PEYTON BERNOT, a member of the Benld City Council and the Gillespie School Board.

Meeting Trump

MARC DANIELS of Springfield was among a group of people who got a quick meeting with DONALD TRUMP before his speech Monday to 10,200 people at the Prairie Capital Convention Center.

Daniels has pushed his "weed out hate" campaign for five years, urging public acts of pulling out weeds and planting sunflower seeds in Illinois and even overseas. He wrote a letter to the editor to The State Journal-Register last month saying he had posed with Trump in Iowa and urged a "weed out hate" stop at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield.

Well, Trump's Springfield rally was a few blocks from the Lincoln Home, and he didn't mention sunflower seeds in his speech. But Daniels was able to pose for a picture with Trump in the lower level of the convention center. And he said Trump also met separately with his potential Illinois delegates.

Daniels, who is Jewish, also had red yarmulkes made, with "Donald Trump" spelled out in English and Hebrew. He offered them to Trump in Springfield.

"He said, 'I like this,' " Daniels said of Trump, who had Daniels give the stack to his son-in-law, JARED KUSHNER, who is Jewish. Trump's daughter, IVANKA, who married Kushner in 2009, is now Jewish as well.

Daniels said before the Trump meeting that he used to be a Democrat but now is a Trump supporter. He said he changed allegiance after "four years of being ignored" by President BARACK OBAMA in his attempts to get a weed out hate event on the White House grounds.

"Donald Trump, I think, is the ideal candidate because I don't think he's religious at all," Daniels said. "I think he's a capitalist. I think he wants to make us great in our own respective ways."

Trump is a Presbyterian who said on MSNBC on Wednesday that religion is "very important."

Daniels also said he thinks "fundamentalist right-wing" people are "a cancer on the Republican Party." He added, "We can't just say America is a Christian country."

Daniels gave me a flier about his idea to have thousands of Jewish campaigners wear the Trump yarmulkes in caucuses and primaries. And in that document, he adds, "Can you imagine a Central Park Weed Out Hate Festival, in which 100,000 Hispanics, African Americans, Whites, Asians, Christians, Muslims and Jews ... (are) weeding out the hatred that fuels domestic racism and global terrorism?"

Trump didn't mention that in his speech either, but he did say, "Maybe we should boycott Starbucks," because the coffee purveyor's 2015 holiday cups don't show winter scenes or Christmas ornaments as some did in the past.

"If I become president, we're all going to be saying, 'merry Christmas,' again," Trump said.

Daniels said he hopes to be at the Democratic debate Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, and to bring yarmulkes with names of HILLARY CLINTON and BERNIE SANDERS.

Another local person who got a quick picture with Trump in Springfield was ROSEMARIE LONG, who chairs the Sangamon County GOP.

Trump was "running a little bit behind" and "didn't want to keep his audience waiting," so the group of about 15 people pretty much just had time to say hello, she said.

Long said she thinks Trump has "energized the Republican Party" and hits "all the right buttons that the people are wanting to hear." She said she likes his call for a strong military, but also the "merry Christmas" message.

"That has been one of my pet peeves," she said.

Trump was prompt, taking the stage about two minutes after the announced speech time.

LaHood talk

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary RAY LaHOOD will speak at a free event at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in the atrium of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. Sixth St. in Springfield.

LaHood has written a memoir called "Seeking Bipartisanship: My Life in Politics" with co-author FRANK MACKAMAN, who is on staff of the Dirksen Congressional Center in Pekin.

At the Springfield event, MIKE LAWRENCE, retired director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University and former longtime journalist, will interview LaHood about the book. Audience questions will also be allowed.

LaHood is a former Republican member of Congress from Peoria who represented part of Springfield in the House — as does his son, U.S. Rep. DARIN LaHOOD, R-Peoria, who won a special election in September.

Despite being from a different party, the elder LaHood was tapped by Obama to be secretary of transportation. He held that post from 2009 to 2013.

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